Longmont, Colo.: Rockies Venture Club, the longest-running and largest angel investing group in Colorado, and Longmont Economic Development Partnership (EDP) announced a new partnership to open up a chapter of the statewide angel network for the St. Vrain region.
Under the agreement, Longmont EDP will work in close partnership with Rockies Venture Club to support a pipeline of entrepreneurs for investment opportunities, and serve as the host of St. Vrain forum meetings at the newly opened Advance Longmont Center. In addition, Rockies Venture Club will recruit local and regional investors to serve as members of the St. Vrain chapter and syndicate deal flow from throughout their statewide network. This structure provides remarkable leverage for the Longmont economy. By engaging local private capital to invest in local companies, aided by state and federal tax benefits, the region can accelerate its job growth without spending significant local taxpayer dollars.
Angel investing is a crucial component of a growing entrepreneurial ecosystem. It provides financial capital for growing startups at important growth stages and a healthy angel investment network can catalyze the success of startups across all industries.
“As we developed the city’s new economic development strategy, Advance Longmont 2.0, we recognized the crucial lack of formal funding for seed-stage and early-stage companies that are starting and growing in Longmont,” said Morgan Smith, Vice President of Longmont Economic Development Partnership. “A new angel forum in partnership with Rockies Venture Club anchors our entrepreneurial ecosystem with an important source of financial capital. With their expertise and track record, Rockies Venture Club is the right partner to address this crucial issue.”
Rockies Venture Club was recently awarded $470,000 by the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) to create new angel investing communities throughout the state, using well-established principles and practices of angel group formation and management to educate and mobilize new angel investors.
“We have millions of dollars of investment resources from local investors who are looking for high quality above market rate returns with an experienced community that has historical tax free portfolio growth in excess of 30% per year,” said Peter Adams, Executive Director of the Rockies Venture Club. “It takes significant effort to mobilize that capital and we’re excited about the partnership with Longmont EDP to help the community achieve our goals for regional economic growth. Longmont and the greater St. Vrain area is one of the fastest-growing areas in the State and has a lot of the building blocks to be a great startup and investment community. We look forward to playing a role in helping connect and educate angel investors in the area as well as funding great startup companies in the region.”
The first St. Vrain angel forum will be held on January 28, 2020 at 3:00pm at the Advance Longmont Center, 1925 Pike Road, Suite 202 in Longmont, CO. Interested Longmont-area entrepreneurs and investors can contact Paul Foley, Colorado Capital Mobilization Director, at [email protected].
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About The Longmont Economic Development Partnership: The Longmont Economic Development Partnership is a public/private 501c(6) non-profit economic development organization serving the greater Longmont area. As Longmont’s primary agent for economic development, the Partnership leads a comprehensive and collaborative economic development strategy to promote and strengthen the Longmont community’s economic health. The Longmont Economic Development Partnership offers a variety of services and resources to support the relocation, retention, and expansion of business in Longmont and serves as the gateway to Longmont for all businesses.
About Rockies Venture Club: Rockies Venture Club, a 501(c)6 non-profit organization, is the longest-running and one of the most active angel investment groups in the U.S., operating actively since 1985. With more than 215 investor members, RVC is a leading syndicate, investing in 20-25 companies annually. Learn more at rockiesventureclub.org.
Contact Name: Morgan Smith, Vice President
Organization: Longmont Economic Development Partnership
Phone Number: 303-651-0128
Email: [email protected]
Contact Name: Paul Foley, Colorado Capital Mobilization Director
Organization: Rockies Venture Club
Phone Number: 303-817-8056
Email: [email protected]
